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The Baseline Diet, Part 1: Meal Frequency, Caloric Intake and Water Intake by Lyle McDonald
I'm going to start this article with a few questions. How much mass have you gained in the last few months? How much money have you spent on exotic supplements hoping they'd be the secret to freaky mass? How many meals are you eating per day? How many calories? How many grams of protein? Carbs? Fat? When's the last time you ate fruit or vegetables? How much water are you consuming on a daily basis. Which brings us to the topic of the next two articles. I'm sure people are hoping that I'll discuss all manners of new nutritional strategies in this column in the upcoming months. While I might share a few, there's really not much new under the sun when it comes to bodybuilding nutrition. Sure, we know a lot more now than lifters did 30 years ago, but overall the same basic rules apply. In this article and the next, I want to talk about some of those basic rules.
The Baseline Diet, Part 2: Protein, Carbohydrates, Fat by Lyle McDonald
In regards to mass gains, many lifters who classify themselves as hardgainers simply don't eat enough. A good starting point for calories, is 16-18 cal/lb. (for fat loss, a good rule of thumb is 12 cal/lb.). Some may need less, others more so consider those values starting points only. Finally, water is intimately involved in just about every reaction in the body, and water intake should be kept high. In the second part of this article, we will discuss the macronutrients: protein, carbohydrates, and fat in regards to setting up the baseline diet.
Brink's Unified Theory of Nutrition by Will Brink
A unified theory seeks to explain seemingly incompatible aspects of various theories. In this article I attempt to unify seemingly incompatible or opposing views regarding nutrition, namely, what is probably the longest running debate in the nutritional sciences: calories vs. macro nutrients.
Carbing Up on the Cyclical Ketogenic Diet by Lyle McDonald
Anyone who has read both "The Anabolic Diet" (AD) by Dr. Mauro DiPasquale and "Bodyopus" (BO) by Dan Duchaine should realize that there are two diametrically different approaches to the carb-up. In the AD, the carb-up is quite unstructured. The goal is basically to eat a lot of carbs, and stop eating when you feel yourself starting to get bloated (which is roughly indicative of full muscle glycogen stores, where more carbohydrate will spill over to fat). In BO, an extremely meticulous carb-up schedule was provided, breaking down the 48 hour carb-up into individual meals, eaten every 2.5 hours. The approach which this article will provide is somewhere in the middle. This article will discuss a variety of topics which pertain to the carb-load phase of the CKD, including duration, carbohydrate intake, quality of carbohydrate intake, fat gain, and others
Charting Progress on the Baseline Diet, Part 1 by Lyle McDonald
In this article, I would like to talk about how an individual might monitor how well (or poorly) that diet is working for them in order to determine if a change is necessary. There are a number of methods to monitor progress and changes in response to a diet or training program, ranging from low-tech to high-tech and poor-quality to high-quality. These methods included underwater weighing, the scale, tape measures, and calipers.
Charting Progress on the Baseline Diet, Part 2: Methods for Measuring Body Composition by Lyle McDonald
In part 1 of this article, I made some general comments about body composition as well as discussing some of the possible methods of measuring changes in body composition. These methods included underwater weighing, the scale, tape measures, and calipers. In the second part of this article, I'd like to discuss some other methods of measuring body composition and make some practical suggestions on how to use the values that measuring body composition is giving you.
Creatine - Not just a sports nutrition supplement by Will Brink
Readers of the March 2003 issue of Life Extension magazine should recall the long list of potential medical, performance and anti-aging effects of creatine. The article outlined the substantial body of research that found creatine may help with diseases effecting the neuro muscular system, such as muscular dystrophy and may have therapeutic applications in aging populations, wasting syndromes, muscle atrophy, fatigue, myopathies, Parkinson's disease, Huntington's disease and other mitochondrial cytopathies. Several studies have shown it may reduce cholesterol by up to 15% and has been used to correct certain inborn errors of metabolism, such as people born without the enzyme(s) responsible for making creatine. In the current article, we examine some additional properties of creatine, such as its effects on growth hormone release, homocysteine and chronic fatigue syndrome, as well as other important issues surrounding this supplement, such as its safety.
The Effects of Diet on Testosterone Part 1: Calories and Protein by Tom Incledon
This article will be divided into two parts. Part 1 presents an overview of how testosterone is stimulated in the body, shows how calorie balance affects T production, and discusses how dietary protein intake affects circulating T levels.
The Effects of Diet on Testosterone Part 2: Carbohydrates and Fats by Tom Incledon
As promised, this continuation will focus on the role of dietary carbohydrates (CHO) and dietary fat on modulating T production. The role of CHO on T production is indirectly addressed when discussing the role of PRO or fat, so this will be reviewed briefly. The effects of fat on T are far more complicated and often time more confusing than the previously discussed macronutrients. To facilitate an understanding of the links between dietary fats or lipids and T, several tables will be presented. An explanation will accompany each table and key references will be reviewed. The article ends with an application of the information to the design of a dietary strategy to either maximize or minimize T levels.
Magnesium: The Multi-Purpose Mineral by Rehan Jalali
Magnesium is a versatile mineral that has some major implications with regards to athletes. It has been studied quite extensively in the research. This article tries to answer the question "Why is magnesium so important to athletes and what are its functions?" By exploring some general information on magnesium and then examining the research, it may be clear to see why this mineral is so important for proper metabolic function.
Muscle Glycogen Resynthesis and Bodybuilding by Rehan Jalali
Do you want your muscles to feel pumped all the time? Do you want more energy during your workouts? Then fill up your glycogen stores! Glycogen is the storage form of glucose (blood sugar). Muscle glycogen resynthesis or as some say glycogen supercompensation is an important aspect in bodybuilding. There are several ways to enhance or improve glycogen stores which will be discussed in a latter part of this article. In this short synopsis of glycogen metabolism as it relates to bodybuilding, I want to explore the details of this interesting topic.
The (Partial) Vindication Of Soy Protein by Will Brink
The bodybuilding community has been pretty hard on soy protein generally relegating it to "crap" status among most bodybuilders and bodybuilding nutritionists. I will be the first to admit I have helped the negative reputation of soy among bodybuilders along by telling them how inferior it is to such proteins as whey or egg in various articles and my book. I still think soy protein is inferior to such proteins as whey and egg, but I do believe that it has some potentially useful applications if used correctly and tweaked just right.
Protein, Part 1 - Definitions and Technical Background by Lyle McDonald
Like most aspects of bodybuilding (and the supplement industry in general), the issue of protein is driven more by marketing hype than physiological reality. The purpose of this article series is to address some technical issues regarding protein and to clear up some of the major misconceptions that currently exist. Although some of the information is decidedly technical, I will try to avoid unnecessarily nasty details as much as possible. This first part will deal primarily with some definitions and technical background, so that later information will make more sense. It will address some basic concepts and definitions regarding protein, digestion of different forms of protein as well as total protein requirements for athletes.
Protein, Part 2: Protein Metabolism by Lyle McDonald
In Part 2 of this series, the topic of protein quality was discussed, including examination of the major methods currently used to rate protein quality. For a variety of reasons, most of the currently available methods to rate proteins are deficient, especially when they are applied to bodybuilders. They are used primarily to determine minimum requirements to either support optimal growth in children (which differs physiologically from the growth seen in bodybuilders since much of the tissue synthesized is organ, and not muscle tissue) or maintenance in adults. None are meant (or should be) used to determine the quality of various proteins for an adult bodybuilders interested in gaining muscle tissue (who is maintaining other bodily tissues).
Protein, Part 3: Individual Amino Acid Requirements by Lyle McDonald
In part 3 of this series, we will further examine the issue of protein quality by looking at amino acid (AA) requirements. Various dietary proteins will be examined within this context. Although arguments are commonly made regarding the superiority of one protein over another in terms of supporting mass gains, we have seen that most high quality proteins more than fulfill the requirements for indispensable AAs, even if we assume requirements to be three times higher than are currently recommended. Although there is some evidence that specific AAs, such as the BCAAs or glutamine, might be needed in higher quantities, the amounts required have not yet been quantified. At this time, it seems unlikely that one high-quality protein will show significantly different results in terms of mass gained over another, especially considering the high protein and caloric intakes seen in bodybuilders. One would expect there to be a greater difference in protein during a diet.
Protein, Part 4: Amino Acid Kinetics and Adaptations by Lyle McDonald
The previous three parts of this article series have discussed a variety of topics related to protein and amino acids (AAs). To help readers better understand some of the mechanisms that regulate protein and AA metabolism in the body, it is necessary to develop a model of AA metabolism. While all the details of the model have not yet been elucidated, the concepts presented should give a general overview of the possible routes that proteins may take once ingested. Additionally, the parts of the model which are affected by high- and low-caloric intake, as well as high- and low-protein intake (e.g. protein cycling) are discussed.
The Recommended Dietary Allowances for Bodybuilders (RDA-B) by Rehan Jalali
The RDA (recommended dietary allowance) is a guideline designed for the maintenance of good nutrition of practically all healthy people in the U.S. It gives a certain amount of various nutrients which is a bare minimum to help prevent disease. This is O.K. for the normal person but what about bodybuilders? This minimum amount of nutrients will not be enough for bodybuilders who put their bodies through stress in intensive training. These athletes would need more of certain nutrients to help them in their training as well as allow them to prevent a disease condition. Certain recommendations are different for bodybuilders. What if there was another general guideline for minimum nutrient intake for bodybuilders? With that, I now propose the RDAB (recommended dietary allowances for bodybuilders)!
The Whey It Is by Will Brink
If there is one thing that continues to perplex me, it is the disparity between how popular whey protein is (thanks in large part to yours truly) and how much confusion there is regarding this immensely popular supplement. By the time you are through reading this article, you will know all you need to know regarding the differences in whey, such as concentrates vs. isolates, micro filtered vs. ion exchange, and many other answers to questions that seem to persist no matter how hard wise-guy writers like me have tried to dispense with all the myths and misinformation/disinformation surrounding whey.
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